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BBC's Mark Byford made redundant

Mark Byford, the deputy director-general of the BBC, is to be made redundant today as the symbolic first casualty of a round of cost-cutting and restructuring.

Mark Byford addresses a meeting of the BBC Executive Committee at BBC Televison Centre in west London Credit: Photo: PA

As well as being paid his salary of £435,000 a year until he leaves in 2011, Mr Byford is expected to receive redundancy of between £800,000 and £900,000.

The 52 year-old has a £3.7 million pension pot within the BBC scheme, from which he can expect £215,000 a year when he reaches retirement age.

While Mr Byford's exit will be presented by the director-general Mark Thompson as amicable, rumours have been circulating within the BBC for more than a month that he was likely to go.

He faced criticism earlier this year after he claimed £5,000 in expenses for flights to the World Cup and senior BBC figures said last night that Mr Byford had become a watchword for many of the criticisms that have plagued senior BBC management in recent years.

One said: “Sacrificing Byford is definitely born out of embarrassment over his pay, his expenses, the size of his pension pot and the fact that news has two people in charge – Byford as chair of the journalism board, and Helen Boaden as director of news.”

However, a source close to the BBC executive board last night said that Mr Byford had volunteered to leave as part of a drive to cut the senior pay bill by 25 per cent by the end of 2011. The source said: “Any idea that Mark Thompson could ask Mark Byford to leave for reasons of political expedience is just nonsense.”

Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, has already threatened to reduce the television licence fee, currently £145.50, pointing to large cuts in government departments and recently said the BBC “mishandled” the issue of executive pay.

Mr Byford will step down from the BBC’s executive board at the end of March next year, and will leave the corporation completely in the early summer.

His departure is understood to be the first move in a potentially radical restructuring of the BBC executive board and senior management.

The post of deputy director-general will disappear when Mr Byford leaves and, with it, several senior posts reporting to him. As a result, the BBC will be able to make a saving of over £1million a year.

* The BBC World Service should not be spared the “pain” of government cuts, Peter Horrocks, BBC director of global news, admitted yesterday, adding that discussions with the Government on its future funding were “vigorous”.